The number of students voting Tuesday has significantly increased since the morning. Voters are still coming in slowly at most polling places in the last hour. At LAR, one voter was counted as of 8:20 a.m. which spiked up to 42 voters as of 1:10 p.m. and 63 people at 2:51 p.m. and 116 at 5 p.m.
At 11 a.m., 35 people had voted at the University YMCA, 1001 S. Wright Street, increasing to 101 voters at 2:30 p.m. and 171 voters at 5:30 p.m. At PAR, voters increased from eight voters by 9 a.m. to 45 by 2 p.m. at 3:30 p.m. there were 96 voters, at 6:40 p.m. there was 160 voters.
Fifty people voted at PAR during the final hour.
Snyder Hall accounted for 40 people voting by 11 a.m. compared to eight at 10 a.m. and then spiked to 130 people at 3 p.m.There were 21 voters at 11:50 at ISR, with around 40 people as of 1:20 p.m. At 3:55, there was still a line of people waiting to vote, while the three booths were filled. at 4:40 p.m., 79 people voted at ISR.
McKinley Foundation started out with 16 voters between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. which increased to 64 voters by 12:40 p.m. Judges said they expected this and figured students would vote after classes and before the evening. At 4 p.m. there were 134 voters. There was no waiting in lines between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
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“Mornings in polling places at residence halls tend to be slower then places in the community because students don’t want to get up or they have class,” Brian Oebitsky, election judge at ISR and senior in LAS, said.
Michael Brant, election judge at the YMCA, said the morning polls were nothing like the presidential elections when there was over 1,000 voters.“I’ve worked days slower then this, but this is probably one of the second slowest times,” Brant said.
Students like Azeez Shogbuyi, senior in LAS, felt an obligation to vote in the election.
“It sounds a bit cliché but it’s your duty as a citizen to vote if you want to make a difference,” Shogbuyi said. “If you don’t vote you don’t have a right to complain about policies you disagree with.”Shoqbuyi said it is no surprise that the voter turnout is low for midterm elections.”I don’t think there is as much hype around the midterm elections,” Shoqbuyi said.
Many people had decided to vote early in Champaign County, however others found it natural to vote on election day.
Jose Contreras, junior in LAS voted early because he was already up and Kaitlynn Kelly, junior in LAS, decided to vote before class when she was expecting no lines.At PAR, the lines grew at 2 p.m. There were about 5 people in line at a time. Nevertheless, the process went smoothly and quickly.
Not all students were out voting though.
Patrick Ding, sophomore in Engineering and desk clerk at ISR said he did not and would not vote.
“I didn’t vote because I came to college and I’ve been under a rock,” Ding said. “I feel like I can’t make a good choice because I don’t know anything about the candidates.
“I’m not sure if some people just vote to vote. I feel like a lot of my friends are uninformed.”
Dan Streib, senior in LAS said it was important to vote but people must make their decisions carefully.
“I would say to carefully think about it and not to confuse the type of care the government should give its citizens with the type of care that individuals should have for them,” Streib said.
Other students felt it was important to have concern for who is running the county.
“If I care about what happens to the country, I should care about who runs it,” Nick Vance, senior in LAS said.